I have to confess that I wasn’t looking forward to watching Inferno for this review. I’ve only ever watched it once in a marathon session alongside The Visitation and Black Orchid and despite the three stories been vastly different, I find it difficult to separate the three.

It doesn’t help that the story is nearly three hours long, longer than most of the Harry Potter films and the same length as the theatrical cut of the first two Lord of the Rings films.

However, one is always best to watch things with a clear and open mind because otherwise I wouldn’t have enjoyed Inferno half as much as I have done. From the story’s explosive title sequence through to the Doctor’s departure to the rubbish tip at the end, this was three almost perfect hours.

We have some measured performances from Nicholas Courtney and Caroline John in both their roles, but among the regular cast, it’s Jon Pertwee that steals the show, particularly in the lone ranger role when he is placed in the parallel universe.

We also get some fantastic guest performances from Derek Newark as the gutsy Greg Sutton, Christopher Benjamin plays the efficient well-meaning Sir Keith Gold to make sure that we are sympathetic to the problems at the project. This makes Olaf Pooley seem even more of a maniac as Professor Stahlmann.

The story isn’t without it’s faults. It’s still too long, the story has a complete anti-climax given that all that happens is that someone listens to the Doctor and the Primords are completely unconvincing as genuine monsters which is probably explained by the fact that they were a late addition to the script.

But the faults are ignored because Inferno is one of the best written, best directed, best acted and best designed stories in the classic series. I’m glad I revisited the Inferno, and it’ll be one I shall be making more of in the future.

The episode’s picture quality isn’t perfect, but given the circumstances of the returned film, we should be grateful that it exists in colour at all. John Levene goes solo on the commentary from episode 3 and 5 in a return of the experimental style. I’m not sure if this works, it would have been nice to have had him interacting with some of the people he worked with given that he clearly has fond memories of his time on the programme.

The other episodes have a commentary from Barry Letts, Terrance Dicks and Nicholas Courtney is obviously a set of people who enjoyed working on the story and enjoyed working with each other. It doesn’t stop this commentary being informative and is well worth a listen.

Can You Hear the Earth Scream should have an incredibly bad dance track as it’s title sequence, but after that minor disappointment, we get a solid making of documentary which talks about the final serial of the season, casting of the support artists and the problems that Douglas Camfield’s collapse during rehearsals. It doesn’t answer the big question though is how much Barry Letts directed and how much Camfield directed, but otherwise, it’s a good making of piece.

The UNIT family is the first part of the documentary which looks broadly at the creation of UNIT. There’s some excellent comments from Derrick Sherwin, Terrance Dicks and Barry Letts about the series and the changes that were made because of the new production team. There’s also a good look at all the rest of the stories in Season 7 and the reasons behind Caroline John’s departure from the series.

A deleted scene has Jon Pertwee doing a different voice but not being funny, while the Visual Effects Promo is similar to the item on the Carnival of Monsters DVD, showing the advantages of CSO while the Pertwee Years introduction is a useful addition and nice to hear the thoughts of Pertwee on the serial, even if it is just for a few moments. The Radio Times billings and Doctor Who annual of 1971 isn’t to my personal taste, but some people will like it.

While I may have initially dreaded re-visiting the Inferno, thanks to this DVD I shall be making many more trips there from now on.

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